


Fool That I Am

by Kenopebi



Category: BioShock, Team Fortress 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M, OOC, Other Character References - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-11 18:31:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4447133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kenopebi/pseuds/Kenopebi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scout finds herself back on the doorstep of her hellish past 15 years later - a Bioshock/Team Fortress crossover extravaganza.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my brain child that I have been putting off for months. I'll update as often as I can (which should be often ;D) and welcome any comments or criticisms. First fic on Archive so be patient if you enjoyed this one. I'll post others later on. Anywayssssssssssss thanks for reading :3

Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I hadn’t been here in 15 years. 15 years of telling myself I would never return. That I would sooner leave this part of my life to rot and waste away than to subject myself to it again. The docks were empty and silent, save for the distant clanging of a ship pulled to harbor. The darkness saturated the air around me; the dull street lamps perpetrating the blackness in small increments across the wooden walkway. It had hardly been touched by the vestiges of time. 

I left Teufort two days ago. The Administrator had granted me two weeks leave to deal with the personal issue that had suddenly fallen into my lap, quite literally. My frown deepened as I thought on my current predicament. I should have told the others to come with me. I know I should have. There was a 98% chance of me not leaving this little mission of mine alive. I was angry at myself to be honest. So unbelievably angry. At least I had told Sniper how I felt about him before I left. I had made flower crowns with Pyro. I had a drink with Spy. They didn’t know I was leaving. They couldn’t know. They didn’t know what I had received in the mail nor the effect it had on me. Poor Pyro. Poor Scarlet. She couldn’t have handled coming back. 

I let out an angry huff and continued down the docks, sticking to the lighted areas of the salted wooden boards. He would be here. He had probably been waiting for days now. Or maybe he knew exactly when I would be here. Maybe he would foil my plan and not be here at all...then I could take a much needed vacation while I was up here in New England. A quiet clang perpetrated the stillness in the air, startling me from my thoughts. I slowed down and turned, readjusting my knapsack around my torso. Nothing. Just darkness. It could have very well been a cat or something to that effect so shrugging it off, I turned around and continued on. A small motorboat sat drifting idly, lightly tethered to the dilapidated dock. There was a man sitting on the edge of the craft, staring at me. I paused. This was it. This was the moment that I had thought about for so many years. Going back. Killing them. Destroying them. Saving them. It all blended together…

There it was.

That sound again.

I jumped around, my hand going straight for the Luger in the back of my pants. “If there is a single soul followin’ me, I swear ta god...you are gonna wish ya hadn’t…” 

“Putain l'enfer…” Spy decloaked and stood before me, removing his cigarette case and perching one of the white sticks to his lips. With an inhale and a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well. Decloak, you imbeciles. It seems the spy work should be left to the expert, non?”

A soft whooshing noise filled the air as two more watches were deactivated, leaving a very wide-eyed Pyro and a frowning Sniper.

“What the actual fuck?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Wait. Are you kiddin me right now?!” I could feel the anger bubbling in my gut. “The absolute gall of you people!” I turned around and started stomping to the boat, the man already readying the ship to depart. 

“Wait!” I could hear the frantic slap of expensive rubber on aged wood as Spy hurried to catch up to me. “Mon cher. Please. Let us help you.” He reached out and latched onto my wrist, his fingers digging into the worn bandages encircling my hands. “Please, Scout. Just talk to us.”

I spun around, ripping my arm from his grasp. For a moment I just stared at him; Spy looking dapper as always, even in the most dreary of settings. I couldn’t even glance over to his comrades. Just the thought of Snipes being upset made me ill. “Spy…” I sighed. I can’t be angry with them. Though they were mercenaries, they were still people. Of course I wouldn’t be able to hide anything from a freakin’ spy. “A’right look. I’ll tell ya what’s going on. Ya did make an effort to follow me all this way...holy shit...like what...2,000 miles? Unbelievable…” I pulled my knapsack from around my back, flexing my shoulders and stretching out my limbs.

“Better start explaining why the hell you’re even here, Roo.” Sniper stepped forward, sidling up next to Spy, a deep frown etched across his rugged features. I looked up at him and gave him a slight strained smile.

“Didn’t expect ya to miss me so much, Snipes. I’m touched.” 

“I ain’t playin’, Scout. What the hell are you doin’ here? ‘S not a safe place.” He growled out, his voice quiet yet dripping with a sober tone.

“Well yeah no shit, Sherlock. I ain’t here for no vacation, ya know?” I felt myself getting angry and took a breath, willing myself to not go into one of my normal outbursts. “Look. ‘M sorry. It’s just...I’m here to take care a’ some business.” I chanced a glance behind me to the mysterious man on the boat. He didn’t seem to be paying any attention the events that were transpiring so with a huff I turned back around and stepped closer to the trio. As I stepped in front of Pyro, I reached down and grabbed her mittened hands, bringing them to my chest. “Py.” I began. “Do you know where you are?” Spy and Sniper turned to us, Spy’s hand lingering on Pyro’s waist. I glanced up from our clasped hands and looked into her stunningly blue eyes. Such a beautiful contrast to her shock of flaming red hair. She shook her head, her lower lip quivering in doubt. “I didn’t expect you to remember…” I muttered out quietly. 

There was a five year age gap between us. I was currently 29 years old and she was 24. We had spent the last 15 years together, hardly more than a couple days apart at any given time. When she was last here, she was but 9 years old. Such a small child with so much on her mind. I took a breath and squeezed her hands, breaking myself out of the darkened reverie. With a glance to Spy and a forced gulp of air, I turned my attention back to the firebug.

“Scarlet.” She looked up, meeting my dark eyes with her own bright ones. “Do you remember Rapture?” 

I think I’ll remember her face until the day I die. Her eyes almost immediately clouded over and she jerked her mittened hands from my own bandaged ones. She pulled away from Spy, a look of utter distress marring her features. That distress turned to pain then morphed fairly quickly to anger. Pure, unbridled anger. 

“Scarlet. Wait. Lemme -”

SMACK

I could feel the tears rimming my eyes and the tingles of a thousand angry nerve endings as she slapped me across the face. I deserved it really. Sniper jumped between us and pulled me away from her as Spy took her head in his hands, whispering melancholic vocables in his sly French tongue. I could feel the heat of her glare on me as Sniper pressed my head into his shoulder. I risked a glance up and caught her eye, staring right through Spy and into my soul. 

“How dare you," she seethed.

Sniper turned and brought me around as well so we were facing the unhappy duo. I couldn’t meet her eyes anymore. Letting my gaze fall to the crude wooden planks, I willed myself not to feel at fault. They had decided to follow me. They shouldn’t have gotten tangled in something I didn’t even want them a part of. I wasn’t at fault here. I wasn’t at fault here. I wasn’t -

“Why.”

I glanced up and met the pyromaniac’s fiery eyes.

“B’cause....”

Because I left people to die.

Because I didn’t burn the place to the ground.

Because I can’t deal with my guilt.

“B’cause I received a package in the mail.” I let out a sigh and grabbed onto Sniper’s hand, needing an anchor of some kind. “It was addressed from Fontaine.” The name felt like acid on my tongue. A thousand memories felt like a million sucker punches to the gut; Scarlet and her ragged doll, the smell of mildewed rot, my father's voice….

I could feel an icy sweat beginning to snake it’s way down my spine. 

“I didn’t want ya ta’ come. Much less even know about my little cross country adventure, Py. I’m sorry for not tellin’ ya! I really am! But I know you wouldn’t have let me go if you knew what I was doin’.” I glanced over to Sniper and Spy. Spy seemed to be digesting every word that spewed forth from my mouth, the information utterly new to him. Sniper, on the other hand, looked completely confused.

“Alright, Scout. Spill it. What exactly are ya doin’ here?” I met his eyes for a moment, trying to decipher the best possible way to tell him I was about to embark on what could quite literally become a suicide mission. 

What was the best course of action here? Turn around and leave them standing here as I sail away into the night? Tell them I’ll see them back at base and forget the entire thing? Piss them off enough to never speak to me again so I don’t feel guilty about abandoning anyone? 

The man behind me cleared his throat, signaling he was ready to set sail. I turned and nodded, already slinging my bag over my shoulders. With a heavy sigh, I looked back up at the expectant trio.

“Look. Guys…” I didn’t know what to do. 

“I’m comin’ with you.” I stared at him for a moment, the sharpshooter clearly already having made his mind up.

“That’s...uh. That’s not gonna happen. Sorry, Snipes but I ain’t exactly gonna let ya follow me into what is sure ta be an extremely dangerous situation. I gotta get goin’. I’ll see you guys later on.” And with that I turned and began making my way to the boat, the patter of footsteps hurrying to catch up. I felt the large grip of Sniper grabbing my arm and with an abrupt turn, I found myself looking up into the extremely close face of the pissed-off marksman; his glasses did nothing to hide the flare of anger in his stormy gray eyes.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Roo. You sure as hell aren’t “letting” me do shit. I’ll choose to follow ya if I so desire if I think you’ll be in any kind of danger. And I know for certain this is dangerous from the way you’re actin’. So either you stop actin’ so bloody mysterious about all this or you deal with the fact I’m followin’ you to wherever it is you and this bloke are goin’.” His voice had dropped several octaves to the familiar growl, except this time the lustfulness I normally loved was all but gone and replaced with a kind of anger I truly wasn’t ready for. And I was honestly somewhat scared of. I must have looked taken aback, as he removed his glasses and ran a calloused hand over his long face. “‘M sorry, love. I’m just worried ‘sall.”

I gave him a small smile and pressed a kiss to his cheek, trying to diffuse the situation. With a look to the quiet Spy and a glance to Pyro, I managed a half-hearted grin.

“If you guys wanna follow me, I ain’t gonna stop ya. I gotta get goin’ though.” I took a deep breath and shot Pyro another look. “Py. I never wanted ya to come back, ya’know? So I don’t expect ya to follow. But if ya did decide to come, just know that I could really use your smarts on the layout of the place. You know the city like the back of your hand.” The inner battle that she had raging had smoothed out to a feeling of numbness. She looked defeated. Almost as if she had came to that realization on her own. With a slight nodding of her head, she approached me and took my hand - her palms blisteringly hot beneath her gloves. 

Spy stepped forward, his heels sharply clicking into the quietness of night. “I am coming as well.” He took Pyro by the waist and led her forward to the patiently waiting boat.

“Well…” With a grin, Snipes leaned down and kissed my forehead, his lips cool against my clammy skin. With that, he stalked off to the boat and took a seat next to a pale Pyro and a contemplative Spy. 

This is not how I wanted this to happen at all and I could feel a heavy weight sinking into my gut. With a frown and a huff, I readjusted my bag once more and stepped into the gently swaying boat.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Better late than never, right? *heh*

About an hour had passed since we had boarded the motorboat, the waves choppy and the sky black as pitch. The air was chilled and tasted of salt. From my vantage point, the lighthouse towered over us, it's far-seeing eye disappearing into the surrounding clouds. I looked over to my comrades as we approached the spire. Pyro had seem to shrink further and further into her own skin the closer we got to our destination. She was white as a sheet, what little moonlight could seep through the heavy clouds splaying across her fear-stricken features. Spy had a tight grip on the firebug’s hands. He had his signature cigarette perched to his lips, smoke curling through the salt-ridden ocean air as we were slowed to a stop next to the stone steps at the base of the lighthouse. With a groan and a stretch, Sniper lifted himself up and helped out the remaining party onto the slippery stone stairway.

I looked back as I disembarked the vessel and nodded my head at the mysterious man who hadn’t spoken a word to us the entire trip. He nodded in return and set off on his return journey. With a shuddering breath, I began the ascent up the steps. There were lights flickering and blinking, obviously unkempt, striving to light the way up the foggy, wet path. After a moment, we found ourselves standing in front of a closed golden door - the visage of Atlas greeting newcomers to the underwater city. 

“‘Zis is very interesting, decor. Art deco, non?” Spy questioned.

“Uh...yeh yeh. Somethin’ to that effect. Ryan was all about that showmanship stuff, ya’know?” I looked at the closed door as well, taking in the full effect of it’s undeniably ostentatious ornamentation. I let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

I walked forward and placing both hands upon the golden entrance pushed them open to reveal utter darkness - this moment a pretty solid indication of how this entire excursion could potentially play out. Scarlet sucked in a sharp intake of breath, a small whine dying on her lips as she reached out and gripped my arm. Her hands were hot as hell and her grip, vice like. With a wince, I trudged forward; the men were following closely with Sniper’s kukri and Spy’s revolver warmly snug against their frames, their fingers at the ready should trouble arise. 

With the closing of the door, we were thrown into utter blackness. However as soon as the door shut, a loud clanging made it’s way through the stone walls as light flooded the area. I walked forward toward the newfound stairwell and began to descend it, the others hot on my heels. We continued on past a small landing with golden eagles adorning the walls into a more open room. There must have been a record player or some form of sound system somewhere as a violin trilled amongst the stone walls, penetrating everything in came into contact with.

“Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin,” I threw over my shoulder at my companions, continuing on down the curved staircase.

Sniper let out a grunt and a mumbled “sounds about right” as he fell into line behind Spy. “So this Rapture is a city, ya say? Seems an awful weird place to have a bloody city.”

“Yeah it’s a city under the sea,” I threw back casually, the strain in my voice more than evident as I tried to play off the host-type. “Uh, after World War II this man named Andrew Ryan decided he didn’t like nobody who wanted to blow shit up, ya’know? So’s he decided to contract out to the best builders he could find and build himself a little underwater utopia-type place. Basically just wanted smart (rich) people and they would breed or whateva and create this perfect society.” I looked back as I spoke, the two men’s eyes wide with surprise. “Yeah I know, ‘s pretty fucked up.” 

When we finally reached the bottom of the staircase, a large bubble shaped device came into view, light reflecting off of it’s bronze paint and splashing off onto the cold stone flooring. I stopped just short of the Bathysphere, a pressure that I had been trying to ignore threatening to burst from my chest. I turned around and faced Scarlet, her face still an ashen white and her eyes intently focused on a loose thread on my blue shirt. 

“Py...look at me.” She shook her head, the movement so slight it barely registered. “Py this is important, c’mon.” She gripped my arm tighter - Spy and Sniper standing a fair distance back just observing the interaction. “A’right, look.” I pried her hands from my arm, tingling as the blood flowed freely back through my veins. “Scarlet. I know ya don’t wanna do ‘dis but ya already came ‘dis far. ‘S not like we can turn back now.” She looked up at me then, her eyes red and brimming with tears. She looked so young. I glanced away unable to hold her gaze as she stared at me, staring straight into my bones. 

“I can’t do this.” 

It was a whisper and it was so faint I barely caught it but I turned back to her and cradled my bandaged hands against her round face. 

“Don’t say that. You can too! Hell you’re one of the strongest people I eva met! C’mon! Not just any girl can throw a flamethrowa like that around!” I forced a smile, the feeling of being a party to this nearly too much to hide. “This ain’t gonna be like the last time, yeh? Rememba gettin’ out of the Bathysphere? Rememba seein’ the sun for the first time?” I heard a sharp intake of breath and glanced up, shock gracing both Sniper and Spy’s expressions. “Uh...but yeah...I gotchu then and I gotchu now. You know that right? Plus we got two sexy, capable mercenaries here to help us out dis time.”

Tears had been slowly streaming down her face but she looked up and nodded her head. With a sniffle and a sigh, she reached for Spy - both retreating into the waiting vessel and taking a seat on the right. I looked back and grabbed Sniper’s hand, his grasp tight against my own. We stepped inside and closed the door, Sniper taking a seat to the left. I walked up to the lever that sat in the middle of the device. With a deep breath, I pulled the lever.

With a whirring of engines and a hiss from the door sealing itself, our descent began. 

Bubbles erupted around the Bathysphere as we descended, occasionally passing markers designating the fathom at which we were pulled into. 10, 18, 24. Lower and lower we sank. A dull scratching suddenly emitted within the walls of the craft and a voice erupted around us. I couldn’t focus on it. That man had done enough. The last thing I wanted was to hear his clipped voice welcoming me back to Hell. However, my comrades were raptly listening to the lies that spewed forth from the speakers. 

**"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No," says the man in Washington, "it belongs to the poor." "No," says the man in the Vatican, "it belongs to God." "No," says the man in Moscow, "it belongs to everyone." I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture."**

Static took over the rest of the transmission, the 30 year old technology failing due to lack of upkeep. 

“The rest ain’t much betta. Just him goin’ on and on about morals and sweat and stuff.” I found myself staring out of the Bathysphere, a slight claustrophobia beginning to nag at the edge of my conscious. Sniper placed a hand on my knee, the action more than welcome but startling me out of my thoughts. I glanced over at him, smiling at the gesture. 

“You wanna see somethin’ amazin’? Watch.”

Within a matter of moments, the Bathysphere ascended a rather large dune, scattering fish and other sealife alike, and we were greeted by the visage of Rapture - the large buildings towering over the ocean floor, a few of the neon lights still shining through the murky water. 

“Holy dooley…” Sniper exclaimed, a very interested Spy leaning forward as well to peer at the massive darkened buildings that now silently loomed over us. I felt like I was going to be sick. I felt like I was being welcomed back into my own personal hell. I glanced over to Scarlet and saw that her eyes were squinted shut, the palms of her hands digging into her eye sockets.

We began our approach of one of the structures, a loud grating noise erupting from all sides. With a sigh, I stood and turned to the others. 

“Whateva happens here…” My breath caught in my throat, the taste of bile returning to my assault my tongue. “Just...Just be careful, yeah?” 

With a flurry of nods, I reached into my bag, pulled out my Luger, and leaned against the door - only able to observe as I was slowly pulled unrelentingly into the world I had left behind so long ago...except this time I knew exactly what I needed to do.

_You may not have wanted me as I was, Ryan, but you defined me. The Rapture dream...your dream...is over, and in waking, I am reborn. There is no name for what I am or what I have become, but the world...this world is about to change. And with your death, they’ll never see me coming._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to Bioshock and TF2 creators for such great games. Thanks for reading so far guys. I'll keep them coming as long as people are interested.


End file.
